City resumes yard clippings and branches pick-up for the season

If you’re a City of Minneapolis Solid Waste & Recycling customer, you can now set out your bundles of branches and bags of yard clippings and leaves by 6 a.m. on your garbage day. Yard waste collection is a special service to our customers, and is included in your monthly fee.

Brush, leaves and other yard trimmings are collected weekly on garbage day through mid-November, weather permitting. Yard waste must be bagged or bundled. See how to prepare it see Yardwaste Preparation. The yard clippings are then composted. Compost is organic materials (grass clippings, leaves and vegetable food wastes) that have decomposed into a rich soil conditioner. If you are interested in making your own compost, see Composting.

If you have an ash tree in your yard, only prune it before May 1 and after Labor Day. The emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that attacks and kills ash trees, has now been spotted in Minneapolis and is active between May 1 and Labor Day. Only work on your ash tree when the emerald ash borer is dormant, because transporting any part of an ash tree (firewood, branches, etc.) helps spread the pest.

Compostable yard bags

Starting in 2013, Minneapolis residents will be required to use compostable bags for leaves and clippings. The requirement is in place now for the following counties: Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin (excluding the City of Minneapolis), Ramsey, Scott and Washington. Using paper and compostable bags rather than traditional black plastic bags will greatly reduce the amount of plastic being sent to local composting facilities. Local composters will have less plastic to screen out of their finished compost, leaving a more desirable compost product. For more information about compostable bags and to become familiar with the logo for compostable bags, visit www.rethinkrecycling.com/compostablebags

Last updated Apr 23, 2014

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